President Lyndon B. Johnson's boyhood home reopened last week after it was closed for almost a month for restoration.

Even at over 100 years old, the house just needed minor wallpaper replacements and is not due for any major renovations soon, curator Baird Todd said.

The iconic house is just one of several historical buildings in the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park in Central Texas which is split up into the Johnson City District and the LBJ Ranch District.

The 36th president of the United States home is located in the Johnson City District, alongside his childhood school building, a general store, a post office and the Johnson Settlement, an event and exhibit center.

About 14 miles west of the Johnson City District stands the LBJ Ranch near Stonewall, which was the beginning and ending place for Johnson.

He was born on Aug. 27, 1908 in a small house on the ranch, and although it was torn down, he rebuilt it during his presidency in 1964.

Just west of the house is the massive Texas White House, which served as Johnsons refuge during his presidency.

During his five years in office, he made 74 trips from Washington, D.C. to his ranch. Just in front of the house under the large oak trees, some staff meetings and press conferences took place.

The Johnsons continued to live in the house even after they donated it to the National Park Service. And after Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Johnson died in 2007, the NPS began preparing the home for public tours.

The two were buried in the ranchs family cemetery, just a few steps from Johnsons birthplace.

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LBJ's century-old boyhood home restored, still standing strong after long history

Writer: Kay Ledbetter, 806-677-5608, skledbetter@ag.tamu.edu Contact: David Graf, 940-716-8610, cdgraf@ag.tamu.edu

WICHITA FALLS The Arts Alive 2015 Home and Garden Festival on Feb. 21-22 will be hosted by the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service office in Wichita County and the Wichita County Master Gardeners Association.

The annual home and garden show will be in the Ray Clymer Exhibit Hall, 1000 5th St. Admission is $7 per person or $5 in advance from local business supporters or Master Gardeners.

Vendor exhibits, seminars and demonstrations are scheduled from 9 a.m.-6 p.m. on Feb. 21 and 11 a.m.-5 p.m. on Feb. 22. The program will benefit the Arts Council of Wichita Falls through the Kemp Center for the Arts.

The primary segment of the educational sessions will occur in the auditorium starting at 9:30 a.m. Feb. 21 with the following topics and speakers: Healthy Trees, Charlie Carr, Texas Tree Care certified arborist, Wichita Falls. Rainfall Alone, Paul Dowlearn, Wichita Valley Nursery, Wichita Falls. Rainwater for Life, Billy Kniffen, retired AgriLife Extension state water resource specialist in rainwater harvesting, Menard. Peytons Project, a non-profit organization for rattlesnake awareness, Tammy Reece, Wichita Falls.

Also, a special educational lineup, known as Challenge Sessions, will be held throughout the two-day event. These hour-long sessions will feature a variety of topics in an informal setting, where attendees may interact with speakers, said David Graf, AgriLife Extension agriculture and natural resources agent for Wichita County.

Challenge Sessions on Feb. 21 will be from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Morning sessions will include: Our Ecology; Backyard Hens, Chicks and Eggs; Farmyard Dairy Goats; Homemade Cheese and Soap; Converting to Native Landscape; Gardening with Rainwater; Gardening with Grandma; Home-Style Canning and More; and Lawn Restoration.

Educational sessions on Feb. 22 begin at 11:30 a.m. and end at 3:45 p.m.

Topics and speakers include: Peytons Project, Reece. Amazing Hummingbirds, Penny Miller, amateur birder, Wichita Falls. Spiders and Insects: The Good and the Bad, Dr. Roy Vogtsberger, Midwestern State University associate biology professor, Wichita Falls.

Challenge Sessions on Feb. 22 will run from 11:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. and the topics will be: Texas Quail Index, Feathered Friends, Peytons Project, Restoring Your Yard and Converting to Native Landscape.

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Home and garden show set for Feb. 21-22 in Wichita Falls

North Haverhill Upper Valley nursing home administrators said they are wary of Gov. Maggie Hassans decision to pull back $7 million designated for New Hampshire nursing homes as part of a plan to balance the budget, because they fear the cut may herald further funding reductions in the future.

If this proposal succeeds, they said, whats to stop it from happening again in the future.

If the governor can go ahead and take this money, going against the legislature, whats to stop her or the commissioner (for the Department of Health and Human Services) down the road to say we need another $10 million? said Craig Labore, administrator of the Grafton County Nursing Home in North Haverhill.

The plan to reallocate the $7 million is part of a proposal to address a $58 million shortfall in the Health and Human Services budget.

William Hinkle, a spokesman for Hassan, said budget change is not a reduction in reimbursement rates; rather, the move would mean forgoing a planned increase in the Medicaid rate of reimbursement to the nursing homes.

While the nursing home rate increase might be worthwhile, it would be hard to justify cutting other critical health services in order to pay for a rate increase , Hinkle wrote in an email.

Hinkle said the executive branch was forced to make reductions to comply with budget cuts initiated by the legislature.

Those unspecified reductions mean that the Executive Branch has to cut funding for services that the legislature approved, Hinkle wrote. We have to make difficult but necessary choices to ensure a balanced budget.

State Sen. Jeanie Forrester, R-Meredith, chairwoman of the Senate Finance Committee, said she opposes using the nursing home reimbursement rate to help paper over the departments budget shortfall.

Its just very, very frustrating, she said. (We) made a promise to the nursing homes. They planned their budgets around it.

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Nursing Homes Fear Future Cutbacks

The Umbrella House, described as "one of the five most remarkable houses of the mid twentieth century" by Architectural Digest, was built in 1953 as a model home for developer Phil Hiss' Lido Shores

SARASOTA - The Umbrella House, a centerpiece of the Sarasota School of midcentury modern architecture, has changed hands for $1.6 million.

The Paul Rudolph-designed house, at 1300 Westway Drive, was sold by Vincent and Julie Ciulla to their neighbors across the street, retired Wyeth pharmaceutical company CEO Bob Essner and his wife, Anne.

The Ciullas, museum exhibit designers, bought the house for $1.2 million in 2005 from Carol and Gary Stover, who had restored the interior. The Stovers owned the home from 1997 to 2005.

The Ciullas then replaced the air-conditioning system and the roof, and also rebuilt a portion of the shading structure that gave the iconic house its name when it was completed in 1953.

The Essners, in turn, plan to reconstruct the remainder of the so-called "umbrella" -- a post-and-beam structure with slats that provided shade for both the house and the pool, said Elliott Himelfarb of the Sarasota Architectural Foundation, who has spoken with the new owners.

The Ciullas rebuilt the umbrella, which was lost to a tropical storm in the late 1960s, only over the house itself.

The Umbrella House isn't the Essners first foray into buying a Rudolph-designed residence. The couple also own the Rudolph-designed Harkavy House on Morningside Drive, in Lido Shores.

They intend to make the Umbrella House available to the foundation for dinners and other events, Himelfarb said.

A MODEL HOME

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Umbrella House sold for $1.6 million and will be preserved

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The new tower at Orlando Regional Medical Center was designed to be hospitable and to make those inside feel as if they were at home, rather than in an institution. The lobby area features lots of natural light, live orchids, richly colored damask seating, art of water lilies and a whimsical light fixture made of blown-glass balls.

As homes go, the place was large -- 245 bedrooms and 345,000 square feet. And though it looked and felt like a home in many ways, the new 10-story building I toured recently was really a hospital in disguise -- a feat of decorating ingenuity, to be sure.

The architects' objective was "to create a home for 245 patients," said the news material handed to those of us previewing America's newest hospital tower, a $300 million structure at Orlando Regional Medical Center in Florida, which on Monday admitted its first "overnight guests."

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then we who care about making homes beautiful, comfortable and nurturing just got a Dallas-size compliment. The designers get this universal truth: There's no place like home, especially when you're sick. Much of what they've done to make the large institutional space feel homey they learned from home designers.

"Our biggest design challenge was to make the hospital feel hospitable," said Karen Guindi, the interior designer at the helm of the project, who designed high-end hotels before hospitals.

It was with great curiosity that I checked out what sleight of hand was used to take the edge off the facts that your bed is a gurney with side rails, that people talk in the hall at all hours and leave the lights on, that everyone who visits you needs to wash their hands and that just when you fall asleep somebody sticks you with needles.

Seems to me it would take more than pretty art, high-definition television and a comfy sofa to gloss over such facts.

"Our mantra was: This is not an institution," said Guindi, who chatted with me in the art-filled lobby after the tour. "It's a healing environment, designed with home, hospitality and nature in mind."

But Guindi also had to adjust her designs to stand up to heavy traffic and heavy use -- the kinds our homes endure (spilled coffee, dirty shoes on nice furniture, facedown pizza), only more so.

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Marni Jameson: Borrow hospital's wellness-inspired decor ideas

Published: Thursday, January 29, 2015 at 4:35 p.m. Last Modified: Thursday, January 29, 2015 at 4:35 p.m.

A construction project on Bayou Lafourche will be postponed this year as the state Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority faces budget cuts.

A plan to build a saltwater control structure on Bayou Lafourche in Larose, a $4.5 million project, will be shelved until the state can come up with money for it, said Kyle Graham, Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority director.

We are committed to getting the permitting done and well seek construction dollars through one of our programs and or future dollars as funding is available, Graham said. I wouldnt anticipate it being more than a year. Were committed to finding it a home either in the future with trust fund dollars or through one of these programs like Restore or others that are coming online.

The project, in engineering and design phases, is planned to halt salt water from making its way up the bayou in low water years, which can mix with freshwater used as a drinking source.

We are deeply disappointed to hear the news from CPRA about the saltwater control structure being cut due to state budget constraints, Archie Chaisson, Lafourche Parish administrator, said in an email. This is a project we have worked on for several years. We have been assured by CPRA executives that as funding becomes available this project will be a top priority since its shovel ready.

The restoration authority is prepping for a potential $2.2 million cut in the 2016 fiscal budget, though those numbers are subject to change as the numbers are finalized.

Graham said his agencys operations are paid for through mineral revenues, and added hes anticipating $2 million to $3 million less than has been historically available due to low oil prices. Meaning there could be potentially more than $5 million less from the agencys budget.

Ancillary programs such as the restoration partnership program and the coastal innovation program, which can work to help private land owners, will be on hold, Graham said.

Also to be put on the back burner is money for levee districts, though Graham said those dollars mostly go to new ones. The cuts wouldnt affect the districts in Terrebonne or Lafourche parishes, Graham said.

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State budget cuts halting Lafourche project

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ELMIRA, NY (WENY) - The Near Westside Neighborhood Association is one step closer to restoring the Richardson - Kennedy House in Elmira.

The association was given a grant of more than $300,000 to restore and stabilize whats known as the Ritz-Carriage house on Water Street.

The funding came from the New York State Office of Parks and Recreation & Historic Preservation, through the Regional Economic Development Council.

The grant money makes up about 75% of the project's total budget, which is more than $400,000.

Near-Westside has to come up with the remaining balance. But they don't have too much more left to fundraise thanks to their partnership with the Historic Elmira organization.

Through their efforts we've already received 82% of what we need, so we're really ready to start with this project, said Beth Farr, Near Westside Neighborhood Association, Executive Director.

The Near Westside association has already begun looking for architects and construction companies.

Farr says it's up to the developer what the house will be used for but she says she hopes to see a mix of commercial space and residential use within the next year or two.

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Historic Elmira Home Gets Money For Restoration

PARAGOULD, AR (KAIT) - A faith-based rehabilitation program in Region 8 is working to expand their ministry.

Shepherd's Fold can house 23 men at their location in Cardwell, MO. Last year, a strong supporter of the ministry bought a home on 6 acres of land in Paragould and gave it to them.

Since then, they've been working to remodel the home; but, before they can house men facing addictions, they need one thing.

"If we were to open this place right, by this time tomorrow evening, I'd have it full," Steve McCracken told Region 8 News.

McCracken is the president and founder of Shepherd's Fold. He explained that the ministry has been fixing up that Paragould home for months and they are trying to do it as economically as possible.

"We've come in and we've bought scrap sheet rock," McCracken said. "Just as God has provided. We've done just a little bit here and there."

The new home can house 8 to 10 men battling addictions. McCracken said although the program is based in Southeast Missouri, there is a great need in Northeast Arkansas.

Since the program started nearly 5 years ago, a majority of the men at Shepherd's Fold have been from Arkansas.

"I know less than 5 of them have been from Missouri," McCracken said.

McCracken said most of the men at Shepherd's Fold come from Poinsett, Craighead and Lawrence Counties.

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Shepherd's Fold works to expand ministry to Paragould with new home

Photo by Vic Caldarola

I couldnt bear the thought of discarding it, says Jodie Morris of Gaithersburg, with the newly restored 1950 Raleigh bicycle that belonged to her mother.

In its 63 years, Patricia Thomas bicycle has seen a lot of use and misuse.

When they recently saw it in a state of rust and disrepair, Thomas daughters disagreed on its future: love it or leave it.

Jodie Morris of Gaithersburg won. She put the bike in her car, brought it to Maryland from Pennsylvania and started looking for someone to restore the bike that she considered had too much history to be lost.

Thomas, who is 85 and lives in Bloomsburg, Pa., bought the Raleigh bike in England in 1951 during a trip to Europe as part of a student diplomatic exchange program, according to Morris.

In a phone interview, Thomas said she and others in the student group she had just graduated from Cedar Crest College in Allentown, Pa. decided to buy bikes to ride around London and into the countryside. But mostly she said she remembers riding from train station to train station, especially in Paris, where it was easier to get around using the Metro.

I bought it in London and paid 19 pounds for it. I think that was about $95, Thomas said. It was considered the Cadillac of bicycles.

Thomas said she brought it home after her three-month program, which included trips to France, Switzerland and Italy.

I was reluctant to part with the bicycle because I spent so much money shipping it around that I was attached to it, she said.

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Restoration of old bike unlocks memories -- Gazette.Net